Who: Jules and Caius When: early afternoon, Saturday, Jan 27th Where: Jules’s house Status: Complete
It was impossible to live in Overlook and not know your neighbors, the wealthy families of Point Pleasant. Caius knew who Jules Cooper was, even if he hadn’t given her more than a few seconds’ thought before all of this bullshit. She was just a teenager. A cheerleader, no less, which was about as intimidating to him as a kitten. He knew now that she had inexplicable powers, but that didn’t mean she knew how to weaponize them. It didn’t make her a threat, not to him. Which meant she could likely be intimidated, and failing that, he could influence her mind into doing what he wanted.
He wanted that portal opened again. He wanted to go into it and find his mother, to set things right. Hadn’t their family suffered enough? They could get her back, and if she wasn’t any better than when she’d gone in, well ... they would figure it out. Caius hadn’t divulged this plan out loud to anyone, aware of how it would be received. His father was busy exploring his own avenues, and Reagan had told Caius unprompted to “leave that girl alone.” She knew him too well sometimes.
But he couldn’t leave her alone, she was the only one who had access to his mother. Or access to where she’d gone. So he found himself sitting in his car across from Jules Cooper’s house, slouched low in the seat as he watched her mother get into her car and drive off. He’d been as patient as he could be until Saturday, when he knew she wouldn’t be at school and Ms. Cooper was more likely to leave, and he’d been right. Caius forced himself to wait another few minutes, then got out and quickly walked across the street to the house. He would ask her nicely first, he told himself, try to get her to cooperate. Mind control was a last resort. Caius rang the bell and waited, his jaw tense, tossing shifty glances around at the neighbors’ places.
Jules hadn't really left her room since returning home Thursday morning. Her mom thought she had the flu and had called the school to let them know. That was fine with Jules. There was no way she could handle going to school right now and Jason had been bringing her assignments home. They were still on her dresser, untouched. Jules had spent most of her time sleeping. Occasionally a nightmare woke her up, but for the most part, she had been blessed with dreamless sleep. It still didn't feel real and every time her eyes opened and she remembered Jasper was gone, it felt like a large rock was placed on her chest, crushing her.
Thanks to the gossip tree in Point Pleasant, her mom knew both Miriam D'Onofrio and Brianna McCarthy were among the missing. She had gone down the street to talk to Mrs. Kelly, leaving Jules to wander downstairs to get a bottle of water. Her stomach was sour and while she knew she needed to eat, she had zero appetite. Jules had just taken a sip when the bell rang. Her hand tightened around the bottle and she froze, staring in the direction of the door. She could just go back upstairs and ignore it. But... what if it was Mr. Lucas? Or... Neil, or Nic. They would have probably texted her, but her phone had been turned off since Friday when her friends wouldn't leave her be, bombarding her with questions about what they had heard. So maybe it was Victoria or even Bash.
Taking a deep, shaky breath, Jules went to the front door and peered out the peephole. The guy standing there looked familiar in a vague sort of way and Jules grimaced, debating whether or not to open the door. Maybe he was there for her mom. Jules finally unlocked the door and pulled it open only a couple of inches. She stared at him questioningly.
Caius wasn’t honestly sure if anyone would answer the door at all. He straightened automatically when he heard the deadbolt turn, squaring his shoulders. He looked in through the small gap Jules created and resisted the urge to put his hand on the door to push it open further. He had to pace himself, nevermind that he was running on not much sleep and stress that was starting to feel like PTSD or something from everything that had been happening to him and his family for what felt like eternity. This was a rightfully-skittish teenager with a great power that he needed. “Jules Cooper?” he asked. Though he wasn’t able to dredge up a smile for her, he kept his expression as carefully neutral as he could. “I’m Caius D’Onofrio, can I speak with you a moment?”
Caius D'Onofrio wasn't there for her mother. He was there for her. And now that Jules knew Miriam D'Onofrio had been one of the infected to go missing, Jules felt the urge to quickly slam the door and lock it. Her hand tightened on the doorknob and she would have wedged her foot against the door if she had been wearing shoes. What did she think was going to happen? That he would force his way into her house? If he tried, she could scream though she didn't think anyone was around to hear her. In the midst of her fear, she realized that Caius didn't look angry. She had no idea how he knew to find her unless Neil or Nic told him. Probably Nic since this guy looked like someone who might make Neil pee his pants. "What do you want to talk about?" Jules asked, feigning stupid even as her voice cracked.
He could see that she was afraid of him, and that satisfied a darker part of Caius. She should be afraid, and not just because he was a grown man and she was a teenage girl at home alone. Caius didn’t mean Jules any of that kind of harm -- no harm at all if she cooperated. “I think you know the answer to that,” he told her, a brief note of disappointment in his tone. He didn’t want to play games with her, there was only one reason he would turn up on her doorstep, right? Neither of them were idiots, he was fairly certain. Caius wet his lips and looked at her a bit more imploringly. “I want to know more about what happened to my mother. Please, Jules.” Caius wasn’t accustomed to appealing to anyone’s humanity to get his way, but he was trying all the non-threatening approaches first.
Jules didn't really want to play games either. She just wanted him to leave. But then he mentioned his mother and Jules frowned, still struggling with the desire to shut the door in his face. At school, she generally had no trouble being a bitch to people if she didn't want them around, even people who probably didn't deserve it, but... she supposed she wasn't exactly that person anymore. And if it had been her mom, wouldn’t she want the same answers? Hell, it had been Jasper. What if she hadn’t been a part of this? What if he had just gone missing? Of course she would be trying to find out why. With a soft sigh, Jules finally stepped back and opened the door so he could step inside. Once Caius was in the foyer, Jules shut the door, though she didn't make any attempt to lead him further into the house, or invite him to sit or anything. She didn't want him to be there any longer than it took to make him realize she couldn't tell him anything more than what he obviously already knew. Because clearly someone had already spoken to him.
"I honestly don't know what I can tell you," Jules said, wrapping her arms around herself and keeping a comfortable distance from him. "Obviously you already know what happened."
Caius was more than fine with the lack of hospitality. Jules had let him in the door, that was the biggest step. He slipped his hands in his coat pockets as he glanced around the foyer. He’d never been in this house before, but it looked like a pretty standard Overlook home. He re-focused on Jules, giving her all the space she wanted. “I know what Nic Castell told me,” he said. He had no qualms about telling Jules how he knew what he knew, now that it was all said and done. “Which was disjointed and vague at best. I would like to hear it from you, since you were the one who pulled the trigger, so to speak.” There was no accusation in his tone, it was calm and neutral even if there was an internal part of him that was practically vibrating with the urge to grab her and try to make her open the portal again. Caius wanted to know how it worked first. “I saw her shortly before that night,” he added, so Jules wouldn’t think he didn’t know anything. “I know she was not herself. I’m not here to place blame. I just want to know what happened in the woods.”
He might not have meant it in an accusatory way but her spine tensed when he pointed out that she had pulled the trigger. Suddenly she understood why Neil hadn't wanted their names mentioned because if Nic hadn't told Caius D'Onofrio her name, he wouldn't be standing in her foyer right now. What had Nic told him? She remembered Nic had been shot, so the disjointed and vague made sense. She felt bad that he had to deal with an injury like that while trying to explain to certain people what had happened to their loved ones. Jules had no idea if Caius would even believe the truth. And if he did, what did that mean for her?
Jules licked her lips and tightened her fingers on her arms. "We were just trying to help. We were able to... to open a doorway to where the fog came from... we thought maybe... I don't know what we thought." She sighed. "All I know is it started to go off the rails and those things were coming out and we had to close the doorway. We had to, or people were going to die. If we could've done something different, we would have. We had to close them in,"
Nic hadn’t actually named any names, or indicated that the one opening the portal was a girl, but Miriam had identified every one of the people who were ‘after’ her, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to narrow it down. That sort of power was beyond Nic Castell, and the librarian was as useless as the jock was stupid. It had to be Jules, and she’d confirmed it for him. It didn’t occur to him to clear up how he knew though, he wasn’t thinking about Nic at all. For a second it took all of Caius’s focus not to grab Jules and shake the shit out of her. We thought maybe ... something? What kind of bullshit planning was that when you were fucking around with people’s lives? With their very location in reality? His jaw clenched with the sudden spike of rage, but Caius did his best to push it down. There’d been a time table, he knew that, and it wasn’t like he’d had any other answers himself. Caius swallowed and drew in a slow breath through his nose. “If you were properly prepared, protected from anything that came out ... could you do it again?” he asked, his voice a touch lower.
Jules stiffened immediately, her eyes snapping to his intently. "No," she said simply. Firmly. "There's nothing that can protect me from what's in there. Or you. There was a reason we had to close it... trying to open it again... no." This was the part she didn't want to deal with. Trying to make people understand why they had to close that portal. They hadn't wanted to. If there had been any way to help Jasper and the others... but they couldn't. Magic hadn't been able to hold those things back. Or Neil's lightning. Jules had only been saved from it because of Carson. But no one would understand that if they hadn't been there. Her tone had been harsh and she knew that but she couldn't do this. She couldn't have people showing up on her doorstep asking her to do something that not only caused her pain, but could potentially hurt people. She remembered what had happened with Greg, and then Phee. It could have been so much worse.
Caius couldn’t help it -- he scoffed at that, his eyes rolling skyward for a moment as he tried to tighten his hold on his patience. This was just a spoiled little girl, he reminded himself. She probably didn’t know much about anything she hadn’t had direct experience with. “With all due respect, Miss Cooper,” he started, his own tone going much colder. His dark eyes narrowed slightly as they met hers again. “You have no idea what I’m capable of. Nic Castell’s power is child’s play compared to mine, and that’s not a brag, it’s a fact. Your lack of planning and weak allies couldn’t protect you before and invited unmitigated disaster, but I won’t make those same mistakes. My father and I can handle anything that tries to come through for long enough to get in, save my mother, and get out. Your cooperation could save time and therefore other lives as well, but we’ll find a way in regardless.”
For the first time since losing Jasper, Jules felt a spark of something other than depression and guilt. It was anger. It flickered alive deep in her gut, flashing in her eyes. Lack of planning. Weak allies. Unmitigated disaster? The real disaster would have happened if they hadn't done what they'd been forced to do. Jules didn't care what this guy's name was, he had no idea what she had been through for the past couple of months. She and the others had done the best that they could and Carson had saved her life. He wasn't weak. He could tear Caius limb to limb if he wanted to! She didn't see Caius D'Onofrio out there facing down fog creatures and having horrible, scary dreams about it. The urge to scream at him was strong and Jules could feel her palms start to itch. Pressing them harder into her hands to keep them under control, Jules glared at Caius. The arrogant asshole. She wanted her tone to be as cold as his but Jules was too emotional a person to keep her cool that way. Instead, her voice was heated to the point where Jules could feel the hysteria building in her gut. She didn't want to lose it completely, especially with her hands starting to burn. She just wanted him to go. "With all due respect, Mr. D'Onofrio, I don't give a shit what you're capable of. If you and your father manage to find a way into that place, then good luck to both of you. Now why don't you fuck off and leave me alone?"
Caius could see her getting angry, and it just made his insides even more icy in response. He’d always felt that the calmer he was, the higher of an upper hand he had. Getting pissed off about the truth wouldn’t help her. Neither Jules nor Nic had presented a good solid plan to him when they’d been describing all of this. It seemed to just be a loose idea at best, and he had plenty of his own anger that they hadn’t planned more carefully, hadn’t reached out for backup, and they’d fucked it up so royally. Maybe something could’ve been done differently to save everyone, to save Caius’s mother, but they’d rushed into it like a bunch of idiots and people had paid with their lives. He was sorely tempted to flex his magical will and pull her under his influence at that very moment, to march her down to Witcham Road and into the woods and make her do what he wanted ... but he wasn’t currently prepared either. He had to be more strategic than they had been. Which also meant he had to leave, since he was in Jules’s house. “You want to turn away the last chance to help put it right? Fine,” he said shortly. Caius turned to open the door to see himself out, glad they hadn’t ventured far into the house. “If it’s as bad as you say, their deaths are on your hands.” He stepped back out into the cold, seething inside, and moved to shut the door behind him.
Jules meant to shout Fuck you! but the words caught in her throat even as Caius shut the door. All that escaped her but a strangled sound of distress. Her feet felt like lead but Jules managed to go to the door and lock it. Her mind was a swirl of emotion. Caius D'Onofrio had no idea what they had gone through. She didn't care how powerful he thought he was. He was no match for that place. Still, while Jules already felt the weight of what had happened, hearing someone removed from the situation accuse her of being responsible for their... deaths... It hurt. Probably because she knew he was right. The anger had faded again, replaced once again by grief and guilt, only much sharper this time. Shaking, Jules peered out the peephole again until she was sure Caius was gone before turning despondently to return to her bedroom.